Leawood City Council approves expedited permits for outdoor restaurant seating

Leawood restaurants now have an easier path to adding outdoor seating as they reopen for dine-in service amid loosening restrictions on businesses in Johnson County and the state of Kansas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leawood City Council this week unanimously authorized City Administrator Scott Lambers to temporarily issue expedited permits for the city’s restaurants to add outdoor seating, bypassing the normal planning process. At the council’s Monday meeting, Lambers proposed using the permits because “all the reports on the restaurants that are trying to reopen is that the indoor space requirements are basically a killer.” “They have to really judge whether or not they can justify opening the inside dining given the limited spacing capacity,” he said.